You see a man with his transgender wife, a woman with her girlfriend, a teen with a gay friend

You might confuse a masculine lesbian for a cis male, a drag queen for a real woman.

Once you find out, you’d fake a smile and run away, looking for a place where you could wash your hand, which you had used in shaking hands with them, and face, where you had been given a friendly kiss.

A father assists his young son fit in to a pink dress he likes.

A mother gladly shaves the sides of her teen son’s head, who identified as a transgender even before he knew the term.

But you didn’t know there was a story behind them.

The father’s mother came out as lesbian and didn’t want to say anything because she was afraid that she won’t be accepted, that she would be viewed as someone who can’t raise a child, that she would be seen as a bad parent instead. All of that she revealed when they found out she had cancer, when she thought she wouldn’t survive. Her children accepted her because she was indeed a wonderful mother. She was ecstatic, and was continuously happy until it was time they finally said goodbye to her.

The mother’s older brother, who she loved dearly, identified as gay. Their parents– their manly father and overly religious mother– had beaten him and called him many things ugly. They had forced him to convert and pray to God for forgiveness and mercy but he declined. They kept mum about it as often but as soon as he reminded them, they would go berserk again, until the day came when he finally committed suicide. Without knowing that there are still others who cared for him.

That’s not all. 

A group of burly and heavily tattooed men clad in black roll down the street on their huge motorcycles and you immediately feel intimidated.

A couple of drunk girls giggle to themselves with arms wrapped around each other as they stroll back to their homes early morning, and you can’t help but shake your head at them.

A bunch of people with multiple piercings look serious as they discuss, and you try to avoid them because you don’t want them to take out their anger and maul you.

A news breaks on you TV screen about an undergrad who was hospitalized of drug overdose. “Addict,” you say in disgust as you change the channel.

You overhear two persons talking about a high school student who jumped to her death from an overpass to the traffic down below. You stand up and butt in to their conversation and say “That girl was just looking for attention,” and you turn away before they could even retort.

But you chose to believe only what you saw… and what you only believe in.

You don’t know that a little girl hides behind one of the men as they look for the kids who had bullied her just to tell them off that what they did was wrong.

Those girls you saw? One caught his boyfriend cheating on her while the other found out that her friends talked behind their. They only met at the bar and shared their burdens and after a while, they became each other’s support system and will become inseparable later on.

You don’t know that those pierced dudes has another member of their group whose father suffered unstable chest pains and is confined at a nearby hospital, and they are talking about how they can support their pal.

You haven’t got a faintest idea that the undergrad was under so much pressure from her parents, who were over achievers. Little did they know that their son suffers from depression and anxiety disorder, which he didn’t tell them because he thought that they wouldn’t accept such answer as to why his grades are starting to drop.

And that high school student was constantly bullied by her classmates, called “psycho” by many, avoided by all like she was a person from the streets, getting pushed around like she was an ugly doll. She kept quiet and had wished to be invisible, but it didn’t work. She finally decided to take her own life, not knowing that there was still her family, who was always there to support her, because she was already blinded by the cruelty shown to her.

You never knew because you never cared to know. You were absorbed by your own beliefs that you never bothered to learn the truth behind everything.

You believed that romantic love should only be between two people from the opposite gender they were born with, that romantic love outside those sexuality is actually lust.

You viewed those who identify as the opposite of the gender they were born with as ungrateful. You protested for transgenders and non-binary people to ask for forgiveness from the Lord because they had altered what He had given them.

You thought that these people do not worship anyone, and you chose to ignore the fact that they spread love and equality because they don’t meet the criteria you have to label whether they are worthy or not worthy to be accepted in God’s kingdom.

You thought people do stupid things for shallow reasons. You always jumped to conclusion as to why they do them.

You thought that you would know others’ personality, attitude and beliefs when you take a good look at them WITHOUT ASKING who they really are and what they have in mind.

Remember that nobody asked you why you had chosen to be straight, why you had chosen to be prim and proper, why you had chosen to judge rather than to accept.

If you would open your mind and eyes, and start listening before you open your mouth, you would know that this place you live in is not becoming a hellhole but instead, it’s the start of an era of  love, mutual respect and acceptance.